Can the DTivo work without the subscription?

You have to pay a mirroring feed for the DirecTV service, that's all. The one DVR fee covers all DVRs on your account. Without DirecTV service (satellite connection or not), you can view existing recordings. If you chose to cancel DVR service, but retain DirecTV service for the box, I believe you will still be able to buffer LiveTV as well
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Thanks Classicsat; looks like my garage will be getting a Tivo!

While you do not have to pay an additional Tivo fee you do, of course, need to pay the fee ($4.99?) to have the access card active

I have 5 boxes in my house, 4 are DTivo's

I pay one DVR fee, and 4 extra box fees

Thats the best part of Directv. You pay One DVR Fee for your entire DVR setup. No matter if you have 1 unit or 400....

You of course then pay a seperate fee for each unit. The first unit is free, after that it is $4.99 a Month for each additional one.

I think this payment plan is by far so much easier, fairer and even a child can understand it. Perhaps others should look at how easy it is...

NinerK said:

Thinking of getting a new box in the family room and sending the current one out to pasture in the garage.

Wondering if I will have to pay the monthly service fee and/or if I'll be able to recieve a signal on it.

If I can use it wihout the monthly fee, will I be able to record shows? Will it "stop working"?

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Unless you are going HD you might want to consider upgrading to a bigger hard drive in your Directivo instead of a new Directv non-tivo dvr. The Directv dvr software is really poorly written and has a lot of bugs (you're only talking $5 a month for the additional receiver).

The hard drive is the heart of a dvr and replacing that (maybe a new remote too) will make it like new. When you go HD, then you might send the Tivo to the garage.

wolflord11 said:

Thats the best part of Directv. You pay One DVR Fee for your entire DVR setup. No matter if you have 400....

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wow a $1996.00 mirror fee. Actualy they do top you off at 8

juliana541 said:

wow a $1996.00 mirror fee. Actualy they do top you off at 8

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Now that would be a great Mirror fee right?...lol.

The 8 top level is for the Average Home User. You can have many more units than that

classicsat said:

You have to pay a mirroring feed for the DirecTV service, that's all. The one DVR fee covers all DVRs on your account. Without DirecTV service (satellite connection or not), you can view existing recordings. If you chose to cancel DVR service, but retain DirecTV service for the box, I believe you will still be able to buffer LiveTV as well.

Click to expand...

Forgive me for being overly cautious. I'm transitioning from two DirecTiVos to two Series 3 TiVos, having finally made the jump to HD. And I have about two hundred hours of shows on my DirecTiVos I haven't watched yet...

So, I can call up DirecTV, cancel my service, keep my boxes (owned, not leased), and they'll play my recorded shows as long as I need?

Thanks!
-T

Directv/Tivo units: Yes.

Directv units: No.

wolflord11 said:

Directv/Tivo units: Yes.

Directv units: No.

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Uh oh. Which of these is an R10? If I have to send it back I'm going to have to figure out how to watch those shows!

-T

If there's a Tivo emblem on the unit, then it's a Tivo. The R10 is a DirecTivo unit.

I love this thread. I have wanted the answers to these questions myself!

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ForrestB said:

If there's a Tivo emblem on the unit, then it's a Tivo. The R10 is a DirecTivo unit.

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So DirecTV will want the R10 back, even though I paid for it at retail? It was $99, and I'm sure I was locked in for at least a year.

-T

Well, I didn't get an unanambiguous answer, so I just called and cancelled my DirecTV service. DirecTV specifically said, without prompting, that I owned all my TiVos, including the R10.

They were polite and helpful, and didn't try to change my mind.

-T